Four: D-Rank

"Aack! Where did that little brat go?!"

Sasuke stomped into the room, footsteps chattering over the wooden floor, where I was calmly sitting on top of the table. I hadn't done a lot of running around since we got here, owing to the fact that this was new territory to me and I had no clue where the f*% I was and would probably walk into a wall. However, I was definitely useful for locating the little toerags who were our charges.

"In the refrigerator," I reported, being able to hear the muffled yelps of 'It's cooold in here!' which Sasuke probably couldn't.

My friend froze – no pun intended. "How the crap did he get in there?!"

I shrugged unconcernedly. "Locked himself in. He's playing hide-and-seek with the one under the sink."

"Aha, so that's where that one went." Sasuke locked the cupboard door. "What about number three?"

"Under the bed, playing with dust bunnies!" Sakura shouted from the bedroom.

"Aaah. That's what that noise was. Now, where's number four…"

"OUCH!" Sasuke yelped.

"Too late."

"Wait, how can One and Two be playing hide and seek if they're both hiding?" Sasuke asked, grabbing hold of Four before she could run off again.

"I'm looking," I reported.

"Aha. That makes more sense now."

D-rank missions, I decided, as we shoved the four brats into the bathtub and scrubbed until Sasuke decided they were clean and then dragged them into bedroom and guarded all the exits, were extremely boring. Not to mention pointless.

"I just don't see the point," I complained to Sasuke over an hour later, as we walked back to the bridge to meet our sensei, who would either be there waiting like he'd never moved, or we'd wait up to four hours for him to show. "I mean, I understand that the babysitting thing is bodyguard practice, and find-the-pet is search-and-retrieve, while package delivery happens in the real world, but over far bigger distances. It's all ninja practice that never has to leave the village. But painting a fence? Cleaning up the park? What's that for?"

"Humility, probably," Sasuke said, ignoring Sakura, whose feet I could hear dragging along the ground – she was clinging to Sasuke's arm again, and he was apparently pretending she was not there. "Us genin have big heads, and the D-ranks are supposed to teach us humility and respect."

"Does it work?" I asked, my ears keying in to at least two genin complaining to their teacher that they were tired of walking dogs. Their voices were unfamiliar, so they were probably in the year above ours, or the year above.

"Not really. It was a good idea, though."

We were getting close to the bridge now – at least I thought we were. I'd never approached it from this angle before. I thought I could hear Kakashi's breathing, but I wasn't sure if it was him or – nope. Definitely Kakashi. Over the last two weeks we'd been genin I had learned to identify his perverted little giggle when he read the Icha Icha book that Sasuke and I had threatened to burn during our bell test. And my chakra sensing, which was slowly improving, recognised his familiar warmth easily, though not as easily as my other teammates'.

"Heya Sensei, what do we do now?" I asked brightly, bouncing to a stop on the wooden planks of the bridge and leaning on the railing. "Whose fence needs painting or brat needs watching? Which boring D-rank have we been assigned this time?"

There was the soft flap of his book snapping shut and I glanced at the spot I estimated his head to be at, widening my eyes in a questioning expression.

"I think you guys have done enough D-ranks for this morning," he said, his voice sounding dangerously cheerful. I backed up a step and nearly went over the railing, but kept my eyes (or rather ears) on our teacher warily. I did not like his tone. Happy was not a good thing. "So I think we'll do some training for this afternoon!" He was up to something, very definitely.

There was a slight ruffle as he raised his arm, holding something up; Sasuke and Sakura groaned, but I was utterly perplexed. "What are they for?"

He was definitely grinning. "These are blindfolds, my dear genin."

I couldn't help it. I laughed.

It felt weird, having the cloth tied around my eyes like that, but at the same time it made me feel more secure, not having to worry about leaves or dust getting into my sensitive eyes. Yes, sensitive. They may not be able to see, but it still hurts like hell if bugs wander into them… Sasuke had walked into the bridge railing four times already, and Sakura was stumbling around blindly. I was just standing with one hand on the railing, listening to the breathing of my sensei and Sasuke's muttered curses, which were slowly getting worse.

"Okay," I said loudly, "this isn't getting us anywhere. Stop moving, the pair of you." They both froze. "Okay. Just stand still. Get used to the fact that you can't see; just hold still and let your other senses take over."

My teammates were now standing still, and Sasuke had stopped cursing. "Now sit down, slowly. Just sit for a few minutes. Your other senses will compensate for no sight. Just hold still. Focus on what you can hear, what you can smell. Breathe deeply; touch the wood underneath you; nothing matters but what is around you."

I listened to their life signs, which felt slightly clearer now, as they calmed down. Sensei was nearby, but not doing anything, and I ignored him and his low, faintly familiar life signs. We all sat for a few minutes, until I continued, "What can you hear?"

"Your breathing, Kakashi-sensei flipping pages," Sasuke said quietly. "Wind stirring the leaves, the river flowing underneath us. I can hear the village, and birds in the forest."

I nodded to myself, then remembered they couldn't see me. "Sakura?"

"Um… the same as Sasuke, mostly. I can hear… dogs barking… and… I think there's a team of genin in the forest near here, training."

I focused; yep, there was. I'd been mostly ignoring them, but now I recognised the voices, their chakras faintly tickling at my senses: familiar, but not identifiable by their essences alone. "Yes, that's Team Eight, training with their sensei. They're practising tracking. Okay, do you feel confident enough to stand up yet?"

I was suspicious as to why Kakashi-sensei had yet to intervene, but I didn't really care, either. Sasuke was the first to stand up, then me, followed less certainly by Sakura. "Find the railing of the bridge," I told them; I still hadn't taken my hand off it. "You need a reference to work with until you get used to this. Don't move; just reach out until you touch it."

Sakura was now clinging to the railing, and I hoped it wasn't actually splintering under her grip. Sasuke was only just brushing it with one hand, and I simply let my hand rest on top of it. I knew this area like the back of my hand now, so with any luck, I'd be able to get these two through it when they were used to using their eyes.

"Well, you three seem to be well-adjusted," said our sensei brightly, and I cursed eloquently under my breath. I'd forgotten about him. "I guess now the real training can start!"

Both Sasuke and I swore under our breaths. Sakura was innocent of the trouble we were about to get into, asking, "What do you mean, Kakashi-sensei? I thought this was training?"

"Damn, we got saddled with an idiot," I muttered under my breath.

"Oh yes, Sakura, this is training," said Kakashi-sensei, still all-too cheerful. "But I know a way to make it much more effective, and lots more fun for the three of you!"

I could feel the blood draining out of my face as he spoke. "We are so dead."

Our sensei stepped forward, handing something over to Sasuke, who fumbled with it for a second, before running his hands over it, trying to 'see' what it was. "What the crap is this for?" he asked, and I walked over slowly to tap the back of his hand, asking to hold it.

He handed it over, and I ran my fingers across it lightly. "Mission scroll," I decided.

"You better not be expecting us to read that," Sakura said, sounding dangerous. I winced and took a step away from her, just to be on the safe side.

"No, no," Kakashi-sensei laughed. "It's actually a mission report that I want you to deliver to the Hokage Tower. Preferably today. Of course, the blindfolds stay on until you get it there and deliver it properly."

This time all three of us swore.

"Have fun! Oh, and by the way, Sasuke, you can't use your ninjutsu, and Naruto, no shadow clones. No deadly force, either, so no blows aimed to kill, or any lethal weaponry. There's another genin team that has been instructed to steal your scroll, so you may want to watch out for them."

"WHAAAAT?!!!?"

But he had already used shunshin to flicker out.

"We seriously need to rewire his idea of 'fun'," I grumbled. "Okay, this isn't gonna be easy; we'll need a plan."

"I'm going to go for follow-the-leader," Sasuke said grouchily. "You know this village a lot better than I do and can actually walk it blindfolded."

"Really? I was favouring the track-down-sensei-and-kill-him plan," I returned. "But yeah, okay, a bit more depth is required."

"Okay." Sasuke paused, thinking. "Okay. Here's the plan. You lead me and Sakura through the village, and try to stop us from getting ourselves killed. Listen for our pursuers and warn us if they start to go for us; if that happens, DON'T split up. Stick together. Sakura, if Naruto yanks on your shirt, he wants you to duck. Do it straight away. I'll carry the scroll, but if we get into a really sticky situation, I'll throw it to Naruto so he can get it out of here."

"Oh, no," I told him flatly, "I'm not going anywhere near Sakura's shirt. She hits me enough as it is. And I'm not leaving you two on your own, blind – you'll get yourselves killed in seconds."

"How about this, then? When we get into trouble, I'll throw the scroll to you, yell "Naruto has the scroll!" and then we'll freeze until you come back for us."

"Yeah, that works."

"But then Naruto might get hurt!" Sakura pointed out; her voice was drifting away.

"Stop moving, you'll fall into the river," I informed her, and she froze with a squeak of terror.

"Sakura, Naruto can escape from ANBU. I think it's safe to assume he can outrun a team of genin, if he's managed to get away from four ANBU squads."

"Ah, my finest hour," I said dreamily, and then laughed. "Sasuke, that dirty look you tried to throw me totally missed. I'm over here, teme."

"What has Naruto been doing that had ANBU after him?" Sakura asked, apparently confused.

"He considers pissing people off an art form and a partial method of revenge. You can just imagine where that's led him."

"Come on, we need to get moving if we want to get this thing there before nightfall, and I soo don't want to sleep on the streets blindfolded." I rapped the railing with one hand. "Village is this way; follow the sound of my voice. I can't tell you exactly where every pothole is, but I know where most of them are."

"When we get into the village we'll have to be touching," Sasuke said quietly, following me carefully, one hand on the railing and his footsteps uncertain. "Sakura and I can't follow you from the sound of your voice alone – it's too noisy. We haven't had any training in this before."

"What, have you had training in this before, Naruto?" Sakura asked instantly. "Why's that? Did you have a sensei before? How did you do it? Was it hard? Why would you need to have training like this –"

"Sakura, pipe down," I sighed, grabbing Sasuke's shirt before he could walk into a tree. "If we're going to do this without getting rather badly hurt, we can't have you squeaking continuously at me."

"But why would you need blindfolded training –"

"Sakura, shut up." Ah, Sasuke's patience had worn thin.

"Okay, Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke was smirking now; I put up one hand and gently brushed his face, determining that, yes, the stupid smug expression was firmly in place. "Eat your heart out, Naruto."

"I hate you."

"I know, I know; right back atcha. Now come on; the sooner we finish this mission, the sooner we can ditch the blindfolds."

Sakura's hand was clinging to my jacket, while Sasuke's hand just rested on my arm. He was surprisingly good at this. Then again, maybe he just trusted me. I briefly considered if this was a good thing, and decided to point out, "This is such a case of the blind leading the blind that it's not even funny."

"Shut up and lead."

I did, content to sing 'Three Blind Mice' as loud as I possibly could. Sasuke, predictably, ignored me. Sakura was trying to hit me but missing. I considered hitting her instead, just to show her, but decided against it. It wouldn't be fair to hit a blind girl. Now, if she hit me first, then anything short of murder was fair game.

It was just after we made it into the village that I heard signs of people following us, and immediately focused in on them, blotting out the dull murmur of the village, deciphering three sets of footsteps: they weren't exactly trying to hide them. Definitely genin. One with the spring of a taijutsu user, another too light and even to tell, and the third set was female, a little bouncy… was she walking with a limp, or just moving unevenly? At this distance, I couldn't tell. Their chakras were faint tingles of weight at the edge of my consciousness: I wasn't good enough yet to really tell what was going on.

Apparently I was concentrating a little too hard on the far-off tingles, as I stumbled over the gutter and brought all three of us down, the other two landing on top of me. "DAMMIT, NARUTO, WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" Sasuke yelled.

"Hey, in case you haven't noticed, I'm blind too!" I yelled back, and as I pulled him to his feet I whispered in his ear, "Three followers, definitely genin older than us. Don't know them, at least one taijutsu user."

"I hate our sensei!" Sasuke complained loudly to cover the near-silent exchange, and stumbled over the same gutter I had just stepped in. I held him upright with a curse or two and then said, "So we know there's a gutter there, could we step over it now?"

"Sure, why not?" said Sasuke dryly, picking up his foot and placing it well clear of the drain.

We kept going, and I listened intently to the genin who were stalking us. Not so intently that I didn't remember where the giant pothole was, though, leading my teammates around it while the hunting team was talking. They were close enough now that I could hear nearly everything.

"Isn't that the top rookie's team, Team Seven?"

"I believe so, my youthful teammate!"

I shuddered. Now I knew these guys. I'd never officially met them, but it was impossible not to at least hear them at some stage, and in eight years of blind wandering, I had heard them quite a lot. Better, I had scavenged their Academy records.

"Okay, I know who they are now," I muttered. "Team Gai, also known as Cell Nine; they graduated last year. Two males, one female; female is Rock Tenten, weapons mistress, hits targets with any weapon you care to name and then some ten out of ten, a hundred times out of a hundred. She has some weaponry-related jutsu, but she's a pure kenjutsu fighter; I don't know of her using genjutsu at all, and she prefers a ranged fight, no hand-to-hand.

"Her cousin, Rock Lee, is a taijutsu user, something's up with his chakra coils that prevents him using any genjutsu or ninjutsu, but he makes up for it in sheer hard work; not to be underestimated, he is deadly fast, too fast to see or even hear when he's going top speed without weights. There are jounin who can't track him when he doesn't have his weights on. His personality is a little… weird. I've been told he's a smaller version of his sensei. Scary thought, that.

"Last one is last year's Top Rookie, Hyuuga Neji, Hinata's cousin. He's a basic Hyuuga, uptight bastard, but he's pretty talented. And he's got this weird thing about Fate and Destiny. And all sorts of other crap I don't understand, or particularly care about. He's supposedly a genius, but I can't judge it too well without more background. He uses the Hyuuga Jyuuken style as his taijutsu; as far as I know he doesn't have much else. Definitely a close-combat fighter."

"It's creepy how you do that," Sasuke remarked quietly, so that the tracking team would have trouble hearing. "You can tell a person's entire life story from their footsteps."

"Only if I've stolen their files before," I pointed out, "and these guys are pretty pathetic as far as being inconspicuous goes. Lee can't whisper, and he has a very… I'll say distinctive way of talking."

"How good are they at tracking?" Sasuke asked quietly; Sakura seemed to have decided to stay quiet. Thank god.

"What's it matter, you're blind. Genius or no, I bet you wouldn't be able to hide your trail. The Hyuuga can see through things with their kekkei genkai, that eye-jutsu-doohickie."

"Byakugan."

I ignored the correction from Sasuke and continued, "So we've got nowhere to hide from him as long as we're within range, assuming he's using it, which I'll bet he is. Unless they're going easy on the poor blind idiots, which I doubt. As for actual tracking… once we're out of range, they are soooo screwed."

"So it's speed for speed?"

"Yep. And we can't see what the hell we're doing."

"Where are we, anyway?" Sakura asked.

"Um, not sure. Signpost! Yes! Sasuke, gimme a boost."

"You can't read it," Sakura pointed out as Sasuke hoisted me up by the waist, me going hand over hand on the pole I'd found, feeling for the signs that had to be up here somewhere.

"Oh shut up." Aha! There they were! I ran my fingers across the weathered carvings, reading aloud, "Fubaki Street and Shikaron Avenue. Hokage Tower is… this way." I turned my blindfolded head in the direction I knew the Hokage Tower was, and… yep, the distinct chakra disturbance that was a collection of raw power was there, too. I'd gotten it right. Hokage Tower was one of the few buildings I could actually sense for the sheer power; the Academy was similar. However, in a village bubbling with chakra, it was almost impossible to find wavers of power that were separate buildings without some hint of direction. If someone told me, I could feel it there – but if I wasn't sure, it might as well have been the southern gate. I couldn't sense ANBU HQ, either: it was shielded from cheeky little chakra-sensers like me.

"I am a genius," I declared, sliding down the pole and narrowly missing knocking Sasuke over.

"Hey genius, would you mind getting off my foot?"

"Oh, can it, Sasuke, we're about a kilometre of walking distance; it'd be five hundred metres or so but there's a load of shops in the way." I sniffed the air, instantly locating the scents of my comrades, and also the various smells sent off by the shops. The other genin were closing in, but slowly – possibly they'd been ordered to go easy on us, but I doubted that would count for much.

"The other genin are closing in – they're trying for a pincer movement, and they've blocked off the quickest route," I noted, vaguely hearing them conversing, spattered with squawks of static, so probably via headphones. "They know Sasuke has the scroll. They're going to try to split us up, and if we get divided we'll be totally helpless."

"But, they must know they have the advantage," Sakura said, sounding uneasy. "Wouldn't they be ordered to go easy on us?"

"Yes," said Sasuke flatly, "but their pride is worth more. They're not going to be shown up by a trio of rookie genin if they can help it. This is a four-way crossroad, isn't it, Naruto?" His voice dropped to almost nothing on the last sentence.

"Yes," I agreed, nodding automatically – training myself to give visual aids, when I myself didn't need them, had been difficult, but worth it. I lowered my voice again, giving them the important parts. "They've blocked the way we came, the shortest route, and the second shortest, but I know how to get there through the way they couldn't cover."

Sasuke grunted; it was a vaguely affirmative noise that meant 'lead on' or 'hurry up already' or both. I started to walk, fast, knowing our only hope was speed, then broke into a jog down the uncovered street. The other two kept up, although Sasuke's hand tightened on my arm and I was sure Sakura would tear through my jacket at any second.

I turned down a street I remembered, less of a street than an alley, and burst into a run that had the other two nearly tripping over themselves. This was a shortcut; hopefully, it would give us more of a chance. The hunter team had sped up, no doubt hoping to reform and catch us up, but sadly for them, I knew my way around here well. Very well.

Then I swore, sensing an abrupt change in chakra (need to remember that shift) and hearing the grim order: 'Attack and stop at all costs'. "Damn, they've gone attack mode!" I barked. "Sasuke, hand over the scroll." We were back on a moderately busy road, in the middle of a market, I thought. I grabbed the hands of the other two, pulling them over to a wall and pushing them against it. "Stay here. Sit down and don't move. I'll come back for you once I've lost the genin; stay alert, and the password is 'sunflower'."

"But Naruto, surely it's better for Sasuke-kun to hold onto the scroll," Sakura began, and I winced, but Sasuke intervened.

"Sakura, what was your favourite subject back in the Academy?"

She immediately abandoned her previous train of thought and set to babbling on her Academy days. I knew that if I touched his face I would feel the long-suffering expression on Sasuke's face, and promised myself I would make it up to him later.

I focused on the genin, who had half-paused, and could just barely make out their conversation through the bustle of the rest of the town.

"What are they doing?"

"It appears they are splitting up in an attempt to confuse us! How unyouthful!"

"Well, that's stupid. It's obvious the Uchiha would have the scroll – he's the only one tough enough to have a chance at hanging onto it."

Crap, they're smart. "Whoo!" I bellowed at the top of my lungs, waving the scroll around desperately. "I stole the scroll off Sasuke! I am a genius! I am the best!" I yelled, and then sprinted off through the streets.

"Well, that one's an idiot," the Hyuuga remarked, and the three of them all set off in pursuit of me. I breathed a sigh of relief, tripping over a crack in the sidewalk as they bypassed my teammates and came straight after me. I kept going, taking a left at my next turn; I knew exactly where I was going. I listened behind me, trying to hear the conversation of Team Gai.

"Are you sure the blonde kid is blindfolded? He's running so confidently." That was the girl.

"…yeah. He just ran confidently into a wall." The Hyuuga, obviously.

"OW! Okay, new wall." I staggered painfully, having just found out I wasn't on the street I thought I was. Damn. "Great. Where the crap am I? Sir? Sir! What street is this?" I asked a passerby I could hear.

A female voice returned, "South Street."

"Oops. Sorry, ma'am. Thankyou, though!" I turned around and raced off, hearing the genin team immediately follow – I think they were on the rooftops.

"Three, two, one…" one of them said, and then I turned the corner back onto the main road.

"Are you sure he's blindfolded?" the girl of the team demanded.

I ran into someone headfirst and cursed, staggering and almost falling. "Sorry sir!" I yelped, and then ran off again before the genin could catch up. I could hear the man swearing at me for quite a while, but hey! I was in a hurry!

"Yes, I'm sure," the Hyuuga said dryly.

I took off again at a full-pelt sprint, racing for the Hokage Tower, making it seem as if I was just trying to run the gauntlet as fast as I could.

"Tenten, take him out."

Aw, crap. They were actually trying to attack me. I put on a burst of speed, but one of the genin – the female – I think – sprang down in front of me. I didn't bother dodging and just ploughed into her, knocking her over and making a small jump to avoid stepping on her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you!" I lied over my shoulder at top volume.

"Right, that brat's going down," Tenten said – yep, the girl. Unfortunately for them, I had already vanished.

Panting, I made my way through the back alleys back to where I'd left Sasuke and Sakura, coming up beside them and then pausing, mentally checking the other genin. They had figured out I wasn't headed for the tower, but had yet to work out where I actually was.

"Okay, I ditched 'em, but it's only temporary," I said quietly, making Sakura jump. Heh, she's so twitchy. "Sunflower. Get up. If we take the street they had blocked, we'll be there in two minutes."

"Give you any trouble?" Sasuke asked, letting me pull him to his feet.

"They tried to set Tenten on me but I just trampled her. I think they're trying to set up traps to catch us on our way there. Damn. I hate it when that happens."

"You trampled Tenten?" Sasuke repeated. "Why didn't you just dodge her?"

"She was trying to grab me! And she would've just kept coming. As it is she wants to kill me."

"How is this a good thing?"

"Anger may cloud her judgement. If not, it'll give me motivation to run."

"Oh man, let's just get this over with," Sasuke sighed, stumbling over a pothole.

"Yessir!"

And then we were running. They weren't happy about it, but hey, I was physically dragging them so there wasn't much they could do about it. "Get ready," I muttered under my breath, "they're gonna ambush us. Get ready to dodge and three… two… one… DUCK!"

I yanked them both down and as a volley of weaponry went overhead (were those water balloons I could hear?) I frantically searched my pockets. Dammit, I know I put those stupid things here somewhere… AHA!

I pulled a round stone from my pocket and tugged a strip of paper from the sheaf I was holding, wrapping it clumsily around the stone where it stuck instantly. I focused a flash of chakra into it and hurled it at the three genin who were dropping down on us, preparing a new tag but not yet throwing it as I dragged my team back to their feet.

There was a flare of chakra as it was released and three screams of pain. I glanced around. "Did the shock tags actually work?" I asked, sounding astonished. Those things had been giving me grief for a month.

Kakashi's voice replied, "Not exactly. Flash tags, not shock tags. Nice big burst of light, though; they're probably just as blind as you three are, now."

"Ah, really?" I perked up, glancing at my sensei's hiding spot – he was standing on a light pole. "Damn, got the light part down, now I just need the 'ning'! Hey, Sasuke, have you seen any spare ning around here?"

"Idiot. Let's finish this mission so you can go finish your damn shock tags!"

"Good plan. Kakashi-sensei, where's the Tower?"

"You do realise you're not supposed to ask me that?" He sounded amused. "How do you even know where I am?"

"Kakashi-sensei, it's time you just admitted that I know everything!"

"If you know everything, then where's the Hokage Tower?"

"…Touché. Hey, you there, where's the Hokage Tower?" I called to yet another random. Gee, we really seemed to be bothering a lot of people today.

"You're standing right in front of it," came the irritated reply.

"Oh yeah, I knew that. Let's go, guys!"

"Oh no you don't!" came Neji's shout from behind us. We all ducked, and there was the sound of a body hitting the ground; he had tried to tackle us, and apparently missed. We'd had all afternoon to get used to being blind, and I'd had most of my life; his team had had vaguely thirty seconds.

"Sorry Neji," I told him, "but I guess we're just that much better than you this time."

We stepped over him – though I think Sasuke purposely stood on his hand – and entered the Hokage Tower. From there, it was a simple matter of handing the scroll over to the chuunin in charge, who seemed bemused to have three blindfolded genin troop in and hand over a mission report.

"Mission accomplished," said our sensei brightly. "You can take off your blindfolds now!"

"Oh thank god!" Sakura exclaimed, yanking violently at the cloth over her eyes. "That was so annoying, wasn't it, Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn," Sasuke grunted as he pulled off his own blindfold. I undid the knot at the back of my head slowly and let the cloth fall into my hands, opening my eyes automatically and expecting to see exactly what I did: nothing. I felt the smile slowly slide off my face and my spirits dim.

"Darn it, my eyes have gone all blurry now!" the girl exclaimed. She seemed determined to make up for her nervous (read: petrified) quietness on the mission. "How about you two?"

"Hn," Sasuke repeated, rubbing violently at his eyes with the backs of his hands.

"Same," I said quietly, keeping my voice carefully neutral. I wasn't talking about the blur: I was talking about the blackness. They'd just escaped it; I was still trapped there.

My sudden dull, neutral tone got Sasuke's attention. "Hey, Naruto, are you alright?" he asked, sounding slightly anxious.

I forced a smile onto my face. "Sure, I'm fine," I replied. "I'm going to head home, though – I still need to find the 'ning' for my shock tags! I want to get them finished!"

I turned away from them and walked out of the Tower, ignoring Sasuke shouting after me, "Naruto! Hey, Naruto!"

It took me sixteen minutes exactly to get back to my empty apartment and let myself in. I sank down onto the floor in my living room, crossing my legs and staring sightlessly at the half-finished tags scattered around me.

Carefully raising my hand, I held it about an inch in front of my nose and marvelled at the blackness, not even the strange chips of colour I had gotten when I closed my eyes, when I was younger. A void of pure black. I wondered what my hands would look like now – surely they were different than the small, soft things I remembered. I traced the raised right hand with my left, counting calluses, scars and blisters, little changes in the skin's natural makeup.

It wouldn't be so bad, I mused, if I didn't remember. If I had been born blind, and had no idea what orange was, or what the clear, open sky looked like, or how beautiful an autumn tree could be, because then it would be impossible to miss them. But I hadn't been born blind – I'd been blinded. It didn't sound that different, but it made all the difference in the world.

Sasuke thought I was used to it – or, I thought he thought I was used to it. It had been eight years, after all; that's plenty of time to grow accustomed to darkness. Right?

Wrong. I could never get used to this.

When I had been younger, I sometimes would wake up in the middle of the night, terrified beyond all reckoning by my nightmares, and face only the ocean of nothingness, the empty void that had become my world. And no matter how loud or long I screamed, no one could save me from that void.

Fury wrenched at my chest and mind, totally unanticipated, and I punched the floor beneath me. No-one had even tried!

But was that right? I wondered suddenly. Hadn't Sasuke done his best, tried his best to… to save me?

Well, it didn't work, I thought sourly, And besides, what does he know? He can just slip his blindfold off when he gets sick of darkness. I can't do that. My blindfold is permanent. I'll never see another sunrise, never laugh at a shadow pattern, never decorate my room with bright pictures to cheer myself up… and it's forever! How can Sasuke or anyone know what it's like?! They don't know anything!!

I punched the floor again, harder, feeling it give slightly. Great. And now I have a fist-sized hole in my floor to worry about tripping over. That's just brilliant.

I was jolted out of my brooding by a loud pounding on the door.

"Naruto! Open up! Let me in! Are you okay? You'd better not be sulking in there!"

I gritted my teeth. Sasuke.

"I'm not going away until you let me in! I'm gonna break down the door! Let me in! Now!"

The pounding stopped, and I knew I had about half a second before the door went flying off its hinges.

"God, Sasuke! It's open!"

"Oh."

I heard Sasuke open the door and come in, settling down on the floor in front of me. His hand brushed over the new fist-hole addition to my living room, fingers catching faintly on splinters, and then reached up to touch my right cheek.

"You say you're okay again and I'll hit you," he promised, and I realised for the first time my cheeks were wet with tears.

"Oh… that…"

"Naruto, what's up?"

I hesitated, then replied, "My head hurts." It really did.

Sasuke sighed. "Right. Want a Panadol?" (1)

"Yeah…"

Sasuke stood up and walked into my kitchen, quickly finding the drug, before coming back out. "Naruto, why is there a kunai embedded in your counter?"

"Because."

"Ah. Here, swallow these, then get up. We're going places."

I gulped the pills down swiftly. "Places?"

"Hn." Sasuke grabbed my shoulder and hauled me to my feet. "Come on. Sitting here punching the floor isn't going to solve anything."

"It might!" I protested.

"What, like the floor collapses and you die?" I was silent, and he sighed. "Come on, Naruto, you're not getting out of it that easy." He tugged me down the stairs and out into the street, where the daily mumble of human life was beginning to die down, waiting for the nightlife to emerge.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Places."

"You don't know, do you?"

"Not a clue."

In the end, I think we went nearly everywhere. Sasuke dragged me across most of Konoha, insisting that there was more to life than sitting in my room making holes in the floor, training with our lazy sensei and doing missions that sucked anyway. Despite myself, despite the fury and desperation, I found my spirits lifting the longer I wandered around the village. Just hearing Sasuke's low voice was enough to calm me down as we walked on.

I listened to the sounds of people laughing, the clinking of coins and chirping of insects. Children scrambling and playing in the dirt. Drunken ninja singing something horribly offkey and somewhat disgusting in a nearby bar. Sasuke insisting that we go to the stalls that sold ink, because he knew I was nearly out after making seals for a week and a half.

I smiled softly. Okay, so the world was crazy and life was unfair. What else was new?

We were passing the markets and I could smell fresh fruit when I abruptly remembered a promise I had made to myself earlier. "Oh! Sasuke, wait here!"

"Wha?" he said, but I was already heading away, and he had no choice but to stand, confused, on the pavement, waiting the five minutes it took me to get what I wanted.

"Here," I said, holding my hand out to him. "For distracting Sakura while I ditched Team whatever-they-were."

Sasuke grinned and took the tomato.

Sandaime Hokage

Attention:

Training Report: Blindfold mission

Jounin Instructor: Hatake Kakashi

Team: Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto

Statement: Team passed.

Notes: Sasuke trusted Naruto to guide him, even though both were blindfolded, and Naruto showed extreme aptitude in this test, read: EXTREME. He may as well have not been blindfolded at all. He also taught the rest of his team how to operate blind.

Sasuke and Naruto work well in a tandem and in defining plans; they bicker a lot, but it seems more playful than aggressive.

Naruto took control of the team effectively, and Sasuke let him take control, even suggested it; stated that "you know this village a lot better than I do and can actually walk it blindfolded"; has Naruto done this before?

Naruto has extensive knowledge of other genin teams and can read engravings with only his fingers; this skill was shown when they got lost and he read a signpost while being held aloft by Sasuke.

Naruto seems unable to comprehend that lightning is not made up of 'light' and 'ning', although this may just be a private joke; I can't tell.

Naruto can and does make explosive tags, and is working on developing shock tags, but can't get them to work yet; he has managed to create 'flash tags' that only give off light and is trying to work out how to make them into shock tags (hence the light plus ning argument). I would advise that whoever is selling him explosive materials should STOP IT NOW.

Naruto can throw accurately even though blindfolded. Has he been practising throwing explosive things while blind, because if he has, it should be stopped as soon as possible before he hurts someone, probably himself.

Even though Sasuke was obviously dependant on Naruto for this exercise, Naruto still seems to depend on Sasuke; this dependence could potentially be crippling if they are separated. Should they be given individual missions to test this?

Sakura performed as expected.

I would like to request something of a challenge for these three, as they are doing very well and I would like to see how they react in a real situation; something more of a challenge.

Signed,

Hatake Kakashi

Hatake Kakashi

Attention:

Your request regarding the 'challenge' for your students has been noted and granted; they will have access to the next available C-rank mission. Report to the missions desk for more information.

Signed,

Sandaime Hokage

Sarutobi

Notes:

(1) For those who don't know, Panadol is a painkiller. It's an Australian thing, which is why some of you may not have heard of it. Basically it's aspirin, Panadeine, Ibuprofen, Tylenol, or whatever pill painkiller isn't prescription-required in your country. There are a lot of varieties even here – Panadol is the one with the least side effects, but it's not as strong as Panadeine, which can make people sensitive to some of the medicine really sick.

Japanese Translations:

Kekkei Genkai: This is literally a 'bloodline limit', a special ability of some type that is passed down from person to person in a family line, created by particular combinations of genes. Kekkei genkai are prized in Konoha, but hated in other villages such as Kiri. Kekkei genkai are set apart from other special talents and abilities by the fact that the Sharingan – the bloodline limit of the Uchiha Clan – cannot copy the ability, because the necessary genetics to make it work are missing.

Kekkei Genkai:

Byakugan: The all-seeing eye of the Hyuuga Clan. This is a doujutsu, and gives the user a version of 'x-ray vision' that has sparked many fan-based 'pervert' jokes. The user can see through walls and a person's skin to see their chakra coils and tenketsu, and it is on this ability that the Hyuuga Clan taijutsu style Jyuuken is built.

Concepts:

Scrolls: The ninja of Konoha seem to use both scrolls and proper books. Scrolls are usually for hand-written stuff like reports and jutsu notes and the like – basically, scrolls seem to be their version of loose paper. You gotta hand it to 'em, it's way less messy.

A/N: Well, that was fun. Kakashi seems to enjoy messing with his students, doesn't he? And, by the way, this is totally viable – take away an advantage of your students to teach them how to work without it. It's like taking away their shoes and then making them run through the Forest of Death. Educational, but funny, in that sadistic-teacher way that we all know and hate.